Limited Altruism and the Expanding Circle of Morality скачать в хорошем качестве

Limited Altruism and the Expanding Circle of Morality

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries two contrasting views of human nature came into prominence. According to the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679) the natural state of human beings is a state of conflict driven by our selfish desires for material goods, reputation, power, and glory which is unabated by any altruistic impulses. The consequence is that the primitive human lives a life that is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” By contrast, in the eighteenth-century Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued for precisely the opposite thesis. Human beings are not innately, and naturally, egoistic and driven to conflict with others to satisfy our desires. These afflictions are unique to life in modern civil society which provides ubiquitous opportunities for competition and conflict that the primitive human would never have imagined. Rather, Rousseau believed that the original state of human nature is “the most appropriate for peace and the best suited for the human race.” In light of our contemporary knowledge of how human nature has been shaped through evolution by natural selection, we can say that neither of these early modern conceptions of human nature is entirely correct. The biologist and evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) famously described evolution as a “struggle for existence.” This might suggest that evolution has made human beings into Hobbesian psychological egoists. But that is not quite right. Evolution has bequeathed to us a natural tendency for limited altruism. Human beings have a real capacity to care about, and make sacrifices, on behalf others at a personal cost to themselves. However, our natural inclination to engage in altruism is significantly circumscribed. We are likely to act altruistically toward our family, those in our tribe, and generally anyone we perceive to be in our “in group.” By contrast, and for the same reasons, human nature is primed to be suspicious, and even hostile, toward those we perceive to be in an “out group.” The morality given to us by human nature, then, is one in which discrimination would be entirely natural. Its effects can still be seen to this day in, for example, phenomena like the “Cinderella Effect” whereby stepchildren are more likely to be mistreated than biological children. Of course, this tendency of human beings to discount the interests of those who are different, or perceived as “other,” has lead to all manner of injustice, harm, and oppression. Can human beings move beyond our primitive capacity for narrowly limited altruism toward a more cosmopolitan ethic of equal moral consideration? The general trend of history, although replete with examples of injustice and oppression, seems to show steady moral progress toward greater equality and inclusion. History testifies to the existence of an expanding circle of morality. This video will explore how this progress is possible with special attention to the claim made by Peter Singer that it is a product of the very nature of human reason itself. 0:00 – Introduction: the historical trend toward justice and equality 3:16 – Human Nature and the Struggle for Existence 13:56 – The Evolutionary Origins of Limited Altruism 26:15 – Alarm Bell Emotions and Discriminatory Responses 36:24 – The Expanding Circle and the Escalator of Reason For the pdf document used in this video see: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OdjH...